by Taj McCoy El
Mayah couldn’t help but laugh. It started off as a slow sniggering which built into a chuckle and crescendoed into a wicked cackle of madness.
“Mayah?” Margaret said concern filling her voice. “Is everything alright?”
“It’s better than alright Mags. So much better!”
“She’s lost it,” Grax complained to Margaret. “I’m about to message Josh.”
“No, no. That’s not it," Mayah waved them off. "I leveled up mining. And not just that.” she walked over to the pit and sifted through the rubble.
"I leveled up Flesh of the Magii and Rage of Pyrmos leveled. Twice!
“Okay, that would explain it. She’s not crazy,” he used air quotes, “but she’s still definitely crazy.”
“Why would you say that?” Margaret asked
“Well, for one, she’s digging in the dirt still. If she starts to eat it, I’ll have to reevaluate my assessment.”
“Why are you digging in the dirt, dear?” Margaret stammered.
“I’m looking for something. Help me clear away some of the rubble.”
Grax and Margaret gave each other an apprehensive look and walked over to help out.
“So, what are we looking for?” Grax bent down and threw some rubble out of the hole.
"I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Grax looked at Margaret and made the loco circle by his head.
“Not really. I’ve never seen one before.”
“Maybe a few more details to help us understand what we might be looking for, dear?”
Mayah sat back on her haunches and rested her hands on her lap. "I cast soul snare on the boss before he died, and it’s supposed to create a crystal of the target's essence. Haven’t used it before so I don’t know what it looks like.”
“Okay, that clears up most of the mystery.”
They cleared the rubble until Margaret handed her a tiny crystal about the size of a thumbnail. “That’s it right?”
Mayah ID’d it.
Name:
Essence crystal
Type:
Skauweesp commander
Grade:
D
Rarity:
Uncommon
Weight:
.32 ounces
Essence:
5 units
Durability:
32/100
“Wow, I must have hit it more than once. It’s down to a third of its durability.”
“Now that you’ve found your trinket can we find the port stone and get some rest?" Grax mewled. "This place is still creepy.”
"I agree with the cat for once.” Margaret added
“Alright,” Mayah stood up and dusted herself off, “let’s go sort the loot.”
Grax stood ramrod straight and held a hand up like a kid in class. "I want the bracers!!!”
“We’ll talk about it.”
"I thought you wanted to talk less.” He sneered.
"I wanted YOU to talk less.”
"I wanted you to get stabbed in the lung less. And yet here we are.” He shrugged and held his palms to the sky.
“You coming Mags? I think I’m coming down with fleas.”
“Right behind you, dear.”
They walked towards the temple and ignored the chatty catty as he mewled in protest over his treatment. It took all three of them and Vergie to swing one door open. They stood stunned at the architecture of the inside, at least what they could see.
It was completely dark in the temple except for a square of dim light about 200 yards straight ahead of them. They walked forward, Mayah’s shadow eye seeing nothing in the distance they had weapons drawn and their club lights seemed dimmer than usual.
They finally reached the lit space and stepped back into the muted light. They stood under massive overhanging eaves that encompassed a large courtyard. Large, dark pillars four feet in diameter ringed the opening to the exterior courtyard supporting the eaves. They cast everything under the overhang in darkness creating the illusion that the room faded into nothingness and only eternal darkness existed beyond the light. The air was eerily still as if the quiet hush was a living sentinel waiting to pounce.
The exterior edge of the courtyard was bordered by a moat of dark waters that surrounded a raised stone platform in the center. The water seemed to be perpetually still as though it was extremely viscous and reluctant to move.
Four bridges arched upwards to span the twenty feet over the water. There was one in each of the four directions. One lay directly in front of them.
"I guess that’s where we’re supposed to go?” Grax implied weakly breaking the silence and making Margaret jump.
Mayah just glared at the cat who carried a club light. She noticed Its radius seemed was dimmer compared to when outside the temple. Something tickled her reptilian brain.
"Does that light need to be recharged?” She needed everyone to be ready for whatever lay inside.
“Nope, this is a new one.”
Mayah mulled that over, and then proceeded forward.
Even though it was dark outside the light from the flame above the keep shone down into the courtyard. As they crossed the bridge, they could see strange objects hung suspended above the central platform. The objects seemed random until they saw the floor. There they found artwork cast onto the floor in shadow by the objects above.
Neat.
Their Club lights were making the shadowy patterns hard to see and Mayah requested for them to be extinguished. As the lights winked out the artwork became more clear.
Geometric patterns in crisscrossing lines formed an intricate eight-pointed star created out of two intertwining squares. Each point held a rune that Mayah deciphered as the eight paths of the elements. Where the squares touched there were other runes that Mayah couldn’t decipher.
The center of the octahedral pattern was mostly filled with a fountain from which the dark waters bubbled forth and cascaded smoothly from to the bowl below, never splashing or rippling.
“Don’t touch the water.” Mayah caught Grax just before he stuck a finger in.
“Why not?” Margaret whispered to Mayah afraid to break the silence.
"I don’t think it’s normal water.”
Margaret nodded in understanding.
As they walked around the fountain, they found the port stone and approached. It was surrounded by the same spell form as the others, but it was made out of shadow and coruscated with dark energy.
Mayah walked towards the port stone and placed her hand upon it. Her bracelet melted off her arm and floated above the stone. Suddenly, Margaret’s and Grax’s bracelets floated into the air above the stone as well. A band of Black hematite braided into the copper and silver, wrapping around the obsidian jewel from clacker’s alley. The bracelets reformed and returned to their owners.
You have received the control keys to the Temple of Umbrasom.
Mission Enacted
Defend the temple:
You must defend the temple and reclaim the city. The last of the Skaduu Army has heard that you have destroyed the commander who was sent here to hold this control point. They are arising from the depths of the abyss to affect their revenge upon you and reclaim the city.
Your mission is to defend the temple gates against 20 waves of the Skaduu.
If you choose not to accept this mission, you will be ported out to the safe zone and the Skaduu army will take over the city and temple again. All progress from shadow’s sheer Shine City will be wiped. You will lose the keys to the temple and the temple will be locked once again.
Reward: Dungeon Key
Failure: Death or the temple is destroyed
Do you choose to accept? Y/N?
“Shaz!!!” Mayah yelled breaking the quiet.
"I accepted the mission,” Margaret said.
“Why would you do that?” Grax harangued her.
“Because, it’s either now or tomorrow, and I’m gonna be really busy tomorrow.” A smile cracked on her
lips.
“She’s getting it,” Mayah backed her up. “But,” she raised a finger, “this mission can cost us the dungeon so you should’ve talked with us about it. We could’ve cleared the city again and been prepped for this.”
“Oh.”
“It’s okay, we’re gonna back your play. Right, Grax?”
“Like I have a choice anymore,” he huffed, crossing his arms and sulking.
“Okay let’s accept the mission.”
Mayah selected yes and was rewarded with a new notification.
Mission accepted
This location is now locked. Your respawn has been forcibly reset to this point. If you die during this encounter you will respawn in ten minutes. Respawn penalties will still apply. If all three paladins are sent to respawn in the same timeframe you will be teleported out of Specter’s keep dungeon losing access.
The skaduu have begun marching from their base and will arrive soon. Please study the controls of the control center carefully.
Follow the red arrows to the control center.
Mission starts in 3:00 hours.
A timer popped up on Mayah’s interface and began counting down.
“MMMMMmmm… this the tastiest flarfing shaz sandwich I’ve ever had,” Grax said, a mocking smile on his face. His eyes were dead, cold, and filled with animosity.
“C’mon, cat, you know the drill. Follow the red arrows.”
Grax kicked at the ground as they walked. Crossing the bridge opposite where they had entered, they followed the red arrows deeper into the temple. They were surrounded by darkness that seemed to go on forever. The courtyard shrunk in the distance behind them until it became a tiny light in the distance.
A panel slid up in the darkness, and they were met with a lit room. The doorway seemed to form out of nowhere as there was no perception of depth in the shadows. Passing the threshold of the room they were met with three chairs that sat facing a long, rectangular table. The table held a map of the streets of the city. Mayah touched the table and the map turned into a holographic representation and popped up into the air at Mayah's chest level. A red line outlined the gate and the main square, the main avenue, and the four streets that ran parallel, two on each side of it. Everything else on the map was grayed out.
“Ooooooh… TD!!!”
“Don’t go pushing buttons until we get to see too, princess.”
“Fine,” Mayah sulked withdrawing her hand from the buttons.
“Why touchdowns?” Margaret the not so noobish asked.
“Tower defense not touchdowns,” Grax corrected her.
"I thought it was temple defense?”
“Mags," Mayah groaned. "Tower defense is a type of game where you protect your base from incoming enemies. You usually build weapons, drones, or usually weaponized towers to take care of combat.”
“So, then this is a tower defense while doing a temple defense?”
“And there you have it,” Grax sighed lamely
"Can I push buttons yet?” Mayah asked
"Wait until everyone is finished reading the first page, princess.”
“But buttons…” Mayah gestured to the table.
Grax shook his head and Margaret chuckled at the precocious princess, and together they sat and began going through the menus. There were menus with build points and types of weapons that could be placed around the city. It also had a health bar for the temple gates. And together they strategized and planned and engraved and enchanted.
✽✽✽
“Did you see the blip in Mayah’s transmission?” Kyle asked the terminal hub.
“Send me and the engineering team the data.” Carelton ordered. When the data popped up on his screen, he studied it for a moment. His eyes went wide as he decompressed the info into its various strands. One strand was definitely a mass of gibberish and foreign to Attactus. He set the AIs to deciphering it. What was more interesting was this unknown stream of data was found milliseconds after one of the drone’s random callouts. Even more interesting was that the drone repeated the call out. A behavior it had not done before.
“I’m sending this up the chain to Delilah, Josh, and security. Something isn’t right with this. Also, get the signal scan logs from engineering. I want to look for any anomalies.”
The AIs continued trying to decipher the data finding nothing but trying anyway.
✽✽✽
“Hicks, Report.” John Nathan Auset commanded his second in command.
“The Probe should be primed for transmission, sir. Our fly-by with the modified recreational drone has blasted the building with the Terahertz radiation signal. The reflective crystal was identified, and we sent a focused signal to the drone. We could not receive any signal from the drone but are 77% positive that the signal was received. The drone should have been making it’s callout and been in open receive mode.” Sergeant Major Hicks informed Auset.
“We’ve learned that the room is shielded, and we will have to physically breach it in order to get the bandwidth necessary for the transfer.”
“Do we have the munitions available?”
"Yes, sir. The main building is graphene strand reinforced concrete with traditional rebar struts. The drone will have no problem dissolving the walls and implanting the signal boosters.”
“Have we acquired the keys to the front door? It may make breaking in the back door a useless endeavor.”
“Well, after retrieving the keyholder from Attactus N.Y., he has been fully debriefed and forthcoming. The problem with that is, he seems to have lost his access to the approval process due to our…” Hicks grimaced, "interference.”
“Kicked the nest too soon, did we? Ah, well…I guess it can't be helped. Let’s go have a talk with our friend.”
“Right this way sir.” He beckoned for Auset to follow. Hicks led him through their hideout checking every corner and doorway they passed. It was one of the reasons Auset liked Hicks, his guard was never down.
Down and around they went until they reached the second basement and ended in a room with a single light. It was extremely bright and pointed into a paunchy, balding, older man’s face effectively blinding him. His wrists were held on the legs of the metal chair with spider silk reinforced tape that looked like duct tape. His thighs were wrapped to the seat and his lower legs were taped to the legs of the chair. His torso, up to his chin, was bound with more tape, and then his arms were taped to his torso in an x-pattern that left very little of the man beneath showing. His head was taped to a board that was also taped to the back of the chair.
He struggled futilely. His eyes were wide with terror, his screams muffled by a gag and more duct tape. He looked like a caterpillar with duct tape skin as he struggled in his bonds. The fear in his eyes evidence to his lack of ability to escape. Auset caught a faint whiff of stale urine. It made his mind flash back to some of the seedier parts of his past.
The duct tape, so nostalgic, Auset thought.
“A chair, and some water,” He said to hicks. And stood waiting in silence for hicks to return. The man strapped to the chair squirmed even harder. Hicks returned in less than a minute handing him both of the requested items.
Auset turned the chair backwards and straddled it fiddling with the lid of the water bottle. His arms draped over the back of the chair hung lazily with the open bottle of water.
“Do it,” was all he said to Hicks who pulled out his knife and walked over to the man. The man struggled even harder against his bonds almost tipping himself away from Hicks. Hicks roughly grabbed the man and set the chair firmly on the ground and inched the knife closer to the man’s face.
With the knife this close to his face, the man stopped struggling in order to not cut himself accidentally. Hicks roughly grabbed his jaw and slid the knife carefully under the tape and cut it free of his face. The tape was pulled unceremoniously from his mouth taking more than a fair bit of skin from his parched lips.
The man let loose an exclamation of pain. He hurriedly
licked his lips and in a broken tremolo that wavered from terror he bawled, "I already told them everything I know. Please don’t kill me?” The sobs came flowing, along with snot and tears. With his head held steady all he could do was stare at the shadow behind the lights hoping that there was a slim chance at life.
“Well, Mr. Stultus that…” Here, Auset paused for dramatic effect, “is entirely up to what your answers to my next few questions are.”
Robert “Bob” Stultus prayed to the gods. He had never prayed to the gods so hard or vehemently as he did at this moment. He prayed to give away everything he had if he could walk out of this alive. He vowed to live his life devoted to their service.
These same gods were the ones who usually threw him under the bus without pause. Not because they didn’t care, but because he was less than an ant to them. This time he beseeched them from a place in his soul he didn’t know existed. A place that existed beyond the empty reach of his soul that echoed with a lifetime of empty sentiment. A place carved into his being with cold, sharp dread. A place where, not unlike this room, no one could hear him or care.
11.6 Vicks, Vapors, and the Rub
Mo was tired. Bone weary came to mind, but then his brain went all teflon and the thoughts slid off his consciousness like water off glass. He saw a bright light that went in and out of focus and jumped in his vision. He focused all his available scrutiny upon the light until it finally clicked.
“Pretty fire.”
Rough hands spun him away from the fire and tossed him up in the air.
He yelled, “Whee…” until his gut landed on something hard that drove the breath out of him. He lost consciousness for a moment. When he came to, his face was bouncing off something covered in fabric that he couldn’t understand. He reached out with a hand and rubbed it. Lacking the cognizance to put the puzzle pieces together he gave the fabric a squeeze.
